[NPV]

Background


April 2015:
The thought of replacing our Maruti 800 (2007 model, bought used in 2009) occurred to me since maintenance expenses were going up on account of part replacements including a clutch overhaul and AC compressor replacement.
The M800 is our second car and primarily used by wifey for school runs, short errands and sometimes on weekends for city runabouts.

In my mind, it was clear that we should go with an 'automatic' and with all the new AMT car launches seemed like we may have enough options that meet our requirements and within our budget.

Wifey wasn't too convinced on the AMT front but agreed to go ahead with the test drives.

Initial requirements:

1. Small car for use in the city - mostly for trips to school, other classes/training, shopping, errands/visits within the city. Total max. usage about 700Km a month
2. Fuel - Petrol for it's lower maintenance costs and the low usage (does not warrant a Diesel)
3. Safety - Must have at least driver-side airbag, ABS not a must-have given the anticipated city usage
4. Easy to drive in dense city traffic conditions
5. AC - Bangalore was a 'naturally air-conditioned city' years ago, but not anymore!
6. Budget - 5 lakh Rupees
7. Transmission - Hope to get an AMT within our budget (at least this was the thought initially)

Other Considerations:

• We decided not to buy the car with a deadline in mind or hasten the process, wanted to take our time in deciding on the right car
• We prefer to keep the car in as much stock condition as possible, hate those accessories guys meddling with wiring, drilling holes, etc. Ideally, we would end up choosing the middle or top-end variant that offers the features we need. On the same lines, we decided that the stock music system (HU+speakers) will do

[NPV]

So the search for a small car/hatchback to replace our Maruti 800 began. Natural choice to begin reading up about contenders was the TBHP thread Which Automatic Hatch?

Initial Contenders:
Alto 800, Alto K10, Celerio (all AMT)

Initial Test Drives (June 2015):
We started Test Drives of AMT cars in June 2015. Wifey wasn't comfortable with the AMT's, so we dropped them and decided to go with Manual Transmission and added the Eon to the list of contenders.
So now our requirement #7 was updated to Manual Transmission.

More details of the initial Test Drives can be found
here and here

At this point, our search for the new car to replace the Maruti 800 had gotten quite interesting and we'd changed our requirement from an AMT car to one with Manual transmission.
So, our contenders were updated to:
Alto 800, Alto K10, Eon (all Manual Transmission)

More details of the Test Drives of the Manual Transmission cars can be found here

There was absolutely no doubt that Wifey had to be comfortable with whatever car we chose, after all it was for her usage primarily.
Around the end of June, news about the Kwid's release was doing the rounds so decided to wait for that.

Shortlist (July 2015):
The cars that Wifey was most comfortable with were the Alto 800 and Alto K10, but I convinced her that between them, the Alto K10 would be a better choice due to better engine, tyres and interiors.
With the addition of the Kwid, we thought our choice would be between the Alto K10 and Kwid.

AMT Rekindled (August 2015):
A very good friend has a 2015 Celerio AMT and he again convinced Wifey to consider the AMT and gave us his car for a week. Wifey still didn't seem comfortable with AMT and I ended up using it most of the time!
Big shoutout to my friend Ben, Thanks Buddy

Details here
and here.

AMT dropped again, so manual transmission it will be!

The Kwid factor (October 2015):
Saw the car, liked it but had to drop it from contention since it was only available in the 800cc avatar. The Kwid RxT(O) seemed ideal except for the fact that the engine was an 800cc one!
So the shortlist was back to only Alto K10.
Details here

Maruti Suzuki's Optional safety kit (O) Variants (February 2016):
By the end of 2015, Maruti had announced the availability of the optional safety pack (O) Variants on most of their cars.This was good news, so we could consider buying a car with dual airbags and ABS.
However, for the Alto K10, the optional safety pack would still have only driver-side airbag! When the export version of the Alto K10 has dual airbags why didn't Maruti offer it on the Alto K10 ?
My best guess is that such a move would have the potential to cannibalize sales of WagonR!
Maruti's range of small cars is very wide (with each one having so many "variants") with very narrow price bands separating them so it gives them very less room to make pricing adjustments hence they are constrained when it comes to adding features.

[NPV]

Alto K10, or ....? (February 2016):
If you've been paying attention to the timeline mentioned in this thread, it is almost 10 months into our search for the new car and we're in February 2016!
Restarted our search for the car in February and the first shock was that dealers were saying Alto K10 (O) variants can take up to 4 months for delivery
Now, time became an important factor because we wanted the car by end of March when the school year ends and summer vacation begins. This would give wifey about 2 months to get acclimatized with the new car before school reopens for the next academic year.
One day Wifey says "Why not consider the WagonR, it definitely has better driver seating and view of the road. Will it be within our budget ?" - This thought had somehow never struck me and now it seemed like we should also bring the WagonR into the mix.
The WagonR would also have the option of getting dual airbags + ABS in the (O) variant as compared to the (O) variants of the Alto (Both Alto 800 and Alto K10 only have optional (O) variants with driver-side airbag), so this made us think of the WagonR as a viable alternative.

More details here

We took a test drive of the WagonR (TD car was a 2015 model Vxi(O) with driver airbag and ABS) and liked it.
The WagonR had quite a few things going in its favour over the Alto K10:

• Easy ingress/egress
• Comfortable driver seat, taller seating position, better view of the road
• Rear seat more comfortable (though boot space is a tad lesser, not a concern)
• Better interiors, feels much more spacious
• Features like Underseat storage box (front passenger seat), 60:40 rear split seats, Front 12 V Accessory socket, Music system (CD/MP3, AM/FM Radio) with USB & Aux, electrically adjustable mirrors, rear defogger, rear wiper/washer

So, we finally had a new contender that came in so late and won the game immediately!

The Maruti Suzuki Optional Safety Pack (O) Variant Dream/Drama (March 2016):
It was now almost 3 months since Maruti had announced the (O) variants on the WagonR but the dealers did not have them available in stock and said that wait times could be as long as 6 months!
In the search for the elusive Vxi (O) we visited the stockyard of Pratham Motors. We found Vxi AMTs and Vxis, but not a single (O) variant, so we were quite sure one of those Vxis would be offered to us.
All the cars were locked so we could just see them from outside. To make doubly sure we checked the chassis numbers against their inventory system to verify if any of them were Vxi (O) but there were none.
We tried our best to find any other dealer who had the Vxi (O) variant in stock but did not find one, so finally decided to bite the bullet and go with a Vxi.
With this decision, we had to compromise on our requirement #3 (Safety - Airbags and ABS).
While we took our time (a lot of time in fact!) to decide on what car to buy, in the end we did have to compromise on when to get it since we were not ready to wait even for a month beyond March.
After all, life is all about sacrifices and compromises

Quite a few folks on the forum, based on their own experiences, felt that the Maruti dealerships are discouraging buyers from going for the (O) variants citing long wait times, etc. During my initial enquiries, some of the sales folk actually denied that the (O) variants have been launched!
Related thread here

Booking (March 2016):
By now, there were pricing changes on almost all cars (new year models) and some revisions due to taxation changes announced in the budget.
Decided to go with Pratham Motors, Queens Road and made the booking amount payment of Rs.5000/-. Told them clearly that I will be doing my own PDI of the allotted vehicle and only if I'm satisfied, it should be sent for registration.

Choosing the Colour:
Of the 7 colour options available, I liked Breeze Blue the most, but we now have 2 Blue coloured cars (Dzire and M800), so decided to give it a miss this time (though the M800 would go away, we'd still have the Dzire).
Our intial shortlist had Ecru Beige, Bakers Chocolate, Silky Silver and Glistening Grey. After seeing the cars in flesh at the stockyard, we were unanimous with the choice of Glistening Grey in Metallic finish (this was almost the same colour as our 2004 Indica V2 DLX).

We hoped that the new Waggy® will soon meet our Dizzy®

[NPV]

Pre-Delivery Inspection:
Couple of days after booking, I was informed that the vehicle has arrived at the showroom (from their stockyard) and I can do my PDI. I visited Pratham Motors, Queens Road with a friend armed with a printout of Team-BHP's PDI article and detailed thread.
We found everything in order and gave the green signal for registration. Some important items checked:
1. Odometer - 45Km (approximate distance from their stockyard to the showroom is 40Km, plus 5Km which is mentioned as the Odo reading on the invoice and that tallies well). Odometer reading OK ? - "Check"
2. VIN Number - The last 2 characters were "BG" (B=February, G=2016)
VIN number OK ? - "Check"

3. DOT Code/Manufacturing week and year of tyres - All were "0516" (5th week of 2016 so Feb 2016)
Tyre Manufacturing Week & Year OK ? - "Check"


Dealership Experience:
My first preference was always Pratham Motors since I knew the Sales Managers there from my earlier purchase of the Dzire few years ago.
They also offered the best buy back price for our Maruti 800 so the decision went easily in their favour.
The other dealership I was talking to was Surakshaa. From a pricing and offers (discounts) perspective there was hardly any difference but their buy back price for the old car was off by 20k!
For contrary evidence I also checked with RNS Motors who also had very similar pricing and offers.

During the test drive phase we did not visit any of the dealerships.
What I also liked is the level of transparency and approachability at Pratham. They had no problems with us visiting their stockyard, asking the staff there to check the inventory system for details of the cars in the yard, detailed PDI prior to registration to name a few things.
They even have a printed form that customers need to sign if being offered a car that hasn't been manufactured in the current year (basically an undertaking that customer is aware that an older model is being offered and he is buying it due to additional benefits/discounts offered).

Insurance:
Decided to go with Maruti Insurance through the dealership.

Accessories:
Our needs were mostly met by the features of the Vxi variant plus basic accessories like interior floor mats, boot mat and mud flaps.
Decided not to get any of these - teflon coating, door visors, bumper corner protective rubber beadings, rear spoiler.

*We may decide to get a reverse parking sensor later (prefer to keep the car in as much stock condition as possible but this may be an exception).

Additionally, we asked only for:

• Under-chassis coating to protect the car
• Art leather seat covers, dealership recommended the "Lester Leather" seat covers from a brand called Stanleo (not Stanley!)

The dealership assured us we will get highly discounted rates for the above (details in the Pricing section)

*Registration number plates - the standard plates included in the basic accessories were the plastic sticker type ones. I asked them to give metal embossed number plates and offered to pay the difference in price.
However, the vendor who makes these plates had the "IND" type only which I did not want so decided to get the plastic ones for now and will get the metal plates done later with some other vendor.

Pricing:
Ex-Showroom - ₹ 4,48,460
Road Tax (Lifetime) - ₹ 65,293
Insurance - ₹ 17,817
Basic Accessories - ₹ 3,172
Extended Warranty - ₹ 6,057
Registration Charges, Smart Card (RC) - ₹ 700
Additional Accessories - ₹ 5,700 (₹ 3,000 Seat Covers + ₹ 2,700 Under-Chassis coating)
Sub Total - ₹ 5,47,199
Less Cash Discount (Consumer Offer) - ₹ 25,000
Less Loyalty Bonus (Exchange Offer) - ₹ 25,000
Total - ₹ 4,97,199

Finance:
The dealership suggested going with an SBI Car Loan but since I had my own contacts in SBI I tried that route and was done very quickly.
No processing fee, I only had to spend Rs.400 for stamp paper (e-stamping).
We hoped to get the car delivered between March 23-25 and accordingly, the bank loan processing work was initiated and completed the previous week.

Delivery Experience:
We were told that Friday was the auspicious day to take delivery of the car, 25 March that also coincided with Good Friday and lesser traffic on our roads on account of the holiday, ideal to take delivery of a new car.

On 24 March I made a late evening visit to check out the seat covers. The default grey and beige combination suggested by the vendor seemed to go well with the car's interiors so decided to go ahead. Good thing about these is that it is just fixed over the upholstery and no "C" shaped pins were stapled on to the foam.

The auspicious time given to us that day was 3-3:30pm so we reached the dealership at 2:15pm and were driving out by 3:15pm after a short ceremony.
During the time at the dealership, we were explained the paper work, given all receipts, etc. We also did another quick PDI, the sales person explained the car's features and we were ready to go after a customary ceremony.
In fact a lot of time was spent in a long conversation between me and the Sales manager about cars, accessories, Bangalore traffic amongst other things. Wifey and daughter were visibly bored by our conversation so we headed out to finally take delivery of the car.
My daughter was presented with a box of chocolates and we gifted the sales executive with a Parker pen set and a box of sweets.

Gifts from dealership - Diviniti branded Ganesha Idol and a box of Cadbury Celebrations Chocolates



Sonax Shampoo and Interior Cleaner (part of Basic Accessories package)


Waggy® Ready for Delivery


The car was filled with 5 liters of petrol (Complimentary) at the dealership and we drove straight to the friendly HP COCO pump near our home. Tanked up with a full tank of Power which also entitled us to free Nitrogen (refill is free and there is a charge of Rs.20 per tyre for first fill as they have to deflate the air and fill up with Nitrogen, but they waived it off as we are regular customers).
So all tyres were deflated and filled up with Nitrogen to 36psi each which is the recommended pressure mentioned in the Tyre Placard.

Tyres "Nitrogenized"


That evening we drove Waggy® to our neighboring Rajaganapathy (Ganesha) temple for a puja where it was decked with flowers and anointed with sandal paste, vibhuti (sacred ash), turmeric and kumkum.

Decked and Anointed


After which it went into its den for a good night's rest

In the den

*The ribbon on the bonnet was too tight and we did not want it to spoil the paint, so took that off after a week.

[NPV]

From this post, we begin the actual review (inputs from both Wifey and I) of our WagonR Vxi (Waggy®) which is the current 2016 top spec variant without the "O" safety pack.

There may also be some inevitable comparisons with the Dzire and Maruti 800 as these are our present and earlier cars prior to getting the WagonR.
This is our own review with our own opinions, so quite likely it may not match with yours, to each his own!

The WagonR's design is quite old school now what with all the newer designs on small cars and there is no denying the fact that it is no "hot hatch". However, it is a very practical, no-nonsense car especially for primary usage in the city and scores well when looked at from that perspective due to the overall value proposition it offers as a package including the price point.

Warning: Please drop your enthusiast hats and do not use the enthusiast lens either when reading/viewing this review else you may have a tendency to be critical in your views.

Waggy®, our new WagonR

What we like:

• Engine is smooth, quite noisy on startup but quietens quickly and settles into a good tone
• Superb light clutch
• Smooth & precise gear shifts
• Effective Air-conditioner
• Steering height adjustment (only tilt steering, no rake adjustment)
• Easy Ingress/Egress, taller seats much like Celerio/Swift
• Comfortable driver seat, taller seating position, better view of the road
• Comfortable rear seat (though boot space is a tad lesser, not a concern for us)
• Decent interiors, feels spacious (more height can give you a feeling of being bigger, both on the inside and outside )
• Features like Underseat storage box (front passenger seat), 60:40 rear split seats, Front 12V Accessory Socket, Music system supports CD/MP3, AM/FM Radio with USB & Aux connectivity, electrically adjustable mirrors, rear defogger, rear wiper/washer, front and rear fog lamps
• "Plain Jane" styling with almost flat exteriors especially on the doors. No flared arches, prominent bulges, curves and other contours - a boon in city traffic conditions, avoids excessive nicks and scratches
• Speed Sensitive Auto Locking mechanism
• Ample Cubby holes, Front passenger and driver get Pop-Out Can holders, rear passengers get a single Can holder behind the Parking brake that can be closed when not in use

What we don't like:

• Driver door armrest does not have a separate lock/unlock switch along with other window and mirror controls. Painful to use the door's main lock/unlock switch
• Stock IRVM is just too small (should have been taller at least) and also fixed quite high closer to the ceiling
• Squarish ORVMs are short, could have been a tad longer (could have been shaped rectangular/oval but this possibly will affect the styling!)
• Key is the integrated type with the remote transmitter and buttons built-in with the key. Very light, feels and looks cheap
• Single line, short LCD display on MID, sometimes difficult to read (small text like Trip meter "A" or "B")
• NVH levels could have been better, engine startup is quite loud. Outside sounds from the road can be heard inside the cabin quite easily
• Inside Rear seat lights placed too far back inside the cabin almost above the parcel tray (possibly to serve dual purpose of cabin and boot lamp as well)
• Horn is loud (inside as well!), we don't like the tone, rather prefer the "Skoda" type that we have in the Dzire
• Un-inspiring Wheel cover design
• Dual tone Black-Beige interiors is not our favorite (All Black is!). A, B and C pillar plastic panels inside the cabin get Maruti's standard light grey color!

Missing Features/Equipment: (*Especially since this is the top spec Vxi variant)

• No bottle holders on any of the door pads (miss this badly)
• No lamp inside the engine bay, No lamp in the boot at lower level
• No Steering mounted controls for audio
• No outside temperature display
• No exclusive digital clock
• No lock/key for Glove box
• No seat belt height adjustment
• No grab handle/assist grip for driver (you shouldn't need any support!)
• No Vanity mirror for driver (you should concentrate on the road!)
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• No Driver seat height adjustment
• No Steering Rake adjustment
• No Alloy Wheels
• No Rear disc brakes
• No Automatic climate control

*ABS & Dual Airbags are already available with the (O) optional safety pack separately so did not list them here.
I do understand that some of these features (especially the last five which I've separated in the list) will also take the car's pricing northwards and away from mass market territory but listed them down anyways for completeness since these can be expected in a top spec variant.

The small yet significant things:

• Central console with music system and HVAC controls - lots of wasted space, scope for improvement
• Placement of center AC Vent on driver side (right side of the central console/left side of steering wheel) is directly in the the field of the vent's air flow/throw, makes your fingers feel cold since your left hand is holding the steering!
• Placement of 12 V Accessory Socket is next to central console on lower portion of dash but it is almost above or in front of the driver's left knee! Can be irritating when the device plug connected to the 12 V Accessory Socket obstructs with your knee (taller people). Even the device cable can be an irritant near your knee due to this placement.
• Top of the dashboard is large, has a lot of space and could have accommodated a tweeter for the music system. Due to the tapered/inclined top, objects kept on the dash tend to slide and move around, could even become dangerous for the front passengers
• Clock display is only on the built-in Nippon Music System's Head Unit LCD display, so you can only choose to display the time or information about what's playing, not both!
• Build Quality - Panel gaps (example:around the hood), Fitment (example:hood release handle dangles and appears loose), Plastic panels build and fitment (example:front floor console with cup holder & cubby hole does not feel solid and shakes without too much effort)

Others:

• Maruti's variants can be confusing! Especially when you have Metallic/Non-metallic paint finishes, AMT and Optional (O) Safety packs. Add to this, dealers not doing a proper "clean-up" of the price list each year, you will end up with a lot of "variants" in the price list
  Though the 2016 WagonR only comes in Lxi and Vxi trims (total 12 "variants"), we ended up with a confusing price list for 16 different variants with some possibly carried over from the previous year's price list! Related link here
• "Equipment" Lists in Brochures can be confusing. Examples from the WagonR Brochure (Bold & Imposing Stance, Stylish tailgate!):
  
• A word of advice here for all car owners - RTM, please Read The Manual, it's well worth the trouble!

[NPV]

Engine:
The WagonR gets the All Aluminium K-Series 3 cylinder, 998cc, Suzuki K10B DOHC (Double OverHead Cam) Petrol engine that also does duty on the Alto K10 and Celerio.

The Engine, though a 3 potter, is nice and smooth and will suffice in terms of available power and pickup for driving needs in city traffic conditions (update-this weekend we drove it for about 320Km on 6/8 lane highways and it did not seem underpowered!).

When idling, you can feel a vibration ever so slightly which is typical of 3 cylinder engines (comparatively the Dzire is very silent and standstill so much so that I sometimes forget that the engine is already cranked but obviously that is not a 3 cylinder engine!).

Ride & Handling:
City Driving:
Neutral ride quality, handles our city roads quite well. Drove the car on some of our city's off-road trails (Bangalore's muddy/bad potholed roads ) and it handled them quite well on first and second gears, wasn't bouncy as I expected it to be.

Steering feels extremely light. When driving, one will surely get the feeling that the car itself is very light (which in fact it is!) but it's also very manoeuvrable. The Dzire's steering feels much heavier and the car itself feels heavier and planted on the road compared to the WagonR.
At the multi-level parking in the office campus, taking the ramp upwards is very easy in second gear without any fuss, just like the Dzire. On the down ramp is where I can feel the difference - without throttle input and in second gear, the WagonR ambles down slowly hardly needing any braking. But the Dzire without throttle input and in second gear seems to hurtle down the ramp and needs braking at certain places on the down ramp to guide it and prevent it from crashing onto the wall!

The oval shaped gear knob fits into the wrist well and easy to slot into the gears and is precise when shifting gears. I still prefer the Dzire's circular/ball shaped gear knob. Clutch is ultra light and very comfortable. The cable type gear shift mechanism seems to be doing a great job on this car.

Haven't experienced any body roll so far, neither have we had the opportunity to go at higher speeds due to the run-in period. So far at speeds up to a tad under 70 Kmph in fifth gear, it has been very comfortable and felt very stable as well.

Very easy to find a good seating position, tilt steering also helps in finding a comfortable steering position.
A, B, C pedals are placed well and it's easy to get used to and quite comfortable as well.

Suspension is decent, not too soft neither stiff, definitely better than our Maruti 800 which would throw the entire road's condition back at us (Feel The Road)! But we also need to take potholed and uneven sections at lower speeds. Obviously the Dzire is much better in it's ride and handling qualities.

Stock tyres are Apollo Amazer 3G 155/65/R14 and seem to be adequate at least for now in our limited usage within the city and outskirts.
I'm not sure if any other tyre profile/size will suit this car and improve ride quality (tend to think that this is the best given it would have been tested enough by Maruti before selecting it for use on the top spec variant).

Update
Highway Driving:
The first 2 weeks of usage was within the city and just the solitary < 100Km drive to the outskirts of the city on a mix of 2 laned roads and a small section of 4 laned roads (where traffic was similar to city traffic). Today, we got an opportunity to do a longish drive on the 6/8 lane highways on the Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Vaniyambadi section (Chennai route). Yes, we drove 160Km one way for breakfast which was just an excuse to test the highway manners of the car. Oh yes, the breakfast was very tasty too and we gorged on it after a relaxed drive!

On the the multi-lane highways, the car came into its own - with 3 people on board, felt very planted (in the city most of the drives were driver-only and then the car felt so light) and even the steering had some decent feedback and did not feel as light as it did in the city.

With the car still being in its running-in period, did not exceed 70kmph to keep the engine revving just around the 2K mark.
Very happy with the highway performance overall. Couple of times a Volvo and Scania bus zipped past but we did not feel the car being unstable during the overtake. The most difficult part was to keep the car down to such speeds on extremely good roads. We took almost 3 hours to do 160Km with couple of short breaks on en route, stuck to the slower lanes to avoid being a hindrance to fast moving traffic.

Braking:
The brakes don't seem to have instantaneous bite but adequate enough to stop the vehicle confidently. Even on the highway at speeds ~70Kmph coming to a complete stop quickly hasn't been a problem (did one such stop quite quickly for a tender coconut break). So far haven't had a need to do any hard/emergency braking. Also the brake pedal play seems to be more than what we are used to with out earlier cars, will get this checked during the first service.

Ground Clearance:
165mm GC on the WagonR seems adequate, it has not bottomed out anywhere so far and I've tried it on some of the really monstrous speed humps of Bangalore! GC is 5mm lesser than that of our Dzire but hasn't been a problem so far.

Performance:
Engine noise is acceptable and not too loud at higher speeds. On longer drives, it is the other noises (other vehicles, honking, etc) that are picked up inside the cabin. When small stones/pebbles are sucked in and thrown into the wheel wells or under the car, a loud and distinct clunk sound can be heard inside the car, as if someone threw a stone inside. Somehow, this kind of sound seems to get amplified inside (is it the tall interior causing that hollowness and amplification ?).

Speed ranges for various gears are short and nice, especially for city driving. The engine loves it when you pick up speed gradually and linearly while up shifting gears. The moment you try to try to rev hard, you can see the tacho zooming and engine sound becoming harsh, clearly this engine is not designed for that kind of driving. Again, when reducing speed you must also downshift gears since the engine can be a little unforgiving otherwise with some vibration clearly indicating you aren't in the right gear for that speed.

During the run-in period, prefer to keep the engine to under 2000 rpm and this is very easily achievable with gradual and linear acceleration and shifting of gears. We've found that we can keep it around 2000 rpm easily up to 65 Kmph or a tad under 70 Kmph with engine revving a tad below or at 2000 rpm in fifth gear

When shifting from a lower to higher gear (first to second gear, second to third gear, etc) if you accelerate too quickly you will see the tacho jumping quickly above 2000 rpm.

Found that the sweet spot for city driving (when you find a decent open stretch) is around 50 kmph in 5th gear and 1500 rpm.

Update
Since the car is still in the running-in period, during our highway drive today we found that 70kmph in 5th gear and around 2000rpm was ideal.

[NPV]

Exteriors:
Blue-eyed, Tallboy, Bread Box are some of the terms used to describe the WagonR and over the years it has undergone several minor styling changes, it still remains quite neutral, nothing funky/garish at the same time not ugly. We're not fans of excessive Chrome as well, so other than the large Chrome applique on the tailgate and the single chrome strip on the front grille, there's not too much of it and we're happy!

This model is primarily the facelifted model introduced in 2013, I don't think there have been any other styling/feature updates after that.

The grille, & bumper design was updated in the 2013 facelift and is quite pleasing. Good thing is that there is no chrome overdose here, just a single line chrome strip on the top for accentuation.
The upper grille has a large flat plastic portion in the middle with the "S" Suzuki logo placed on it.
Bumper is quite large with the taller design making it proportionate for this car. The Air-dam in the front bumper is also tall with 4 slats. Bumper also has integrated fog lamps.
Wrap around headlamps are quite big, look nice and serve their purpose quite well.
The headlamp has 3 sections - in white, amber and Blue (hence the name Blue-eyed boy). While the Blue portion stands out with other lighter colours, with the Glistening Grey is is not so apparent due to the contrast in body colour.

Doors open pretty wide, helping ingress and egress, a boon for the elderly.
The protective moldings on the doors are a stock feature but I think they're placed too low (I guess they will possibly look odd and affect styling if placed higher).

Squarish ORVMs tend to be a tad narrower, could have been wider, maybe rectangular or even oval shaped like the ones on our Dzire.
My best guess for Maruti's reasoning behind the choice of squarish ORVMs is again styling related.
Also, the owners manual recommends one-thirds/two-thirds setup for mirror positioning meaning you should be able to see the car's side profile occupying one-third of the mirror's width and remaining two-third for the view of the road, somehow I wasn't comfortable with this. Need to experiment a little more to find that ideal position.

Stock halogen headlamps have sufficient throw at least for city driving conditions. Felt that these are more powerful than the stock ones on our Dzire!

The long, wrap-around type tail lamps and the wide, high mounted (top of tailgate) stop lamp serve the purpose very well.

Somehow did not feel that the rear spoiler (available as an accessory) is warranted.

The WagonR comes with the archaic pillar type radio antenna, could have been a short roof mounted one or shark-fin type (just dreaming).

The front windows have a triangular quarter glass, this is good since it reduces blind spots which is sometimes a problem even in our Dzire.

Old-school flap type door handles seem to suit the styling of the car and have no functional issues. It blends with the flat design of the doors.

Found some good spots for a mini photo shoot during our first longish drive to the outskirts of Bangalore












Notice the integrated type mud flaps - fixed on rear edge of front wheel (below A pillar) well and rear wheel well (bumper) and very similar to the ones on our Dzire






Boring Wheel cover design - fitment is suspect since I can see some gaps, prone to falling off when the car is moving. I've seen quite a few WagonR's missing one or more of these!


Is this hole a provision for a plastic rear wheel well cladding ? Front wheel wells have a plastic cladding but missing on rear wheel wells! Our Dzire has both front and rear wheel well plastic claddings.


Squarish ORVMs-Should have been a tad wider for better field of view. Found this to be very similar to those on the Tata Sumo!
Played around a little bit and found this positioning much better than the recommended 1/3rd, 2/3rd scheme


Panel Gaps - Hood


..can fit a magazine easily!


Holding the Tailgate when Opening/Closing - there are 3 sections on the underside of the chrome applique. The ones on either side house the bulbs for the license/registration plate light, so use the middle section to hold the tailgate (it's between the "G" and "O" engraved on the applique)


Doors open nice and wide to make ingress/egress easy




Partially ribbed roof (rear portion)


Tailgate, err the "Stylish Tailgate" - Notice the high mounted stop lamp, fog lamp on the bumper, tall tail lights, Washer/Wiper, Defogger and the Chrome Applique (Maruti calls it the WagonR engraved Chrome celebration plate)

[NPV]

Interiors:
The WagonR's interiors have improved over the years with the most evident one being the dashboard and it's black top that inclines downwards towards the windshield (similar to the Hyundai Eon I guess ?). Also evident is the dual tone color scheme of Black and Beige, but we really wish it had been All Black! Well, actually it's triple tone since the A, B and C Pillar plastic panels are the standard Maruti grey and we hate this, also these are dirt magnets. Just hope the Beige portions also don't end up being dirt magnets.

Air-con vents on the either ends of the dashboard are the Circular type like the ones on our Dzire and now on many of Maruti's cars, optimized parts bin initiative! Silver surrounds on the circular air vents add to the cosmetics.

The center air-con vents are narrow and tall, placed on either side of the central console. The center AC vent near the driver is placed directly in front of the left edge of the steering wheel.

The central console (with music system, hazard warning switch and HVAC controls) occupies a lot more space than necessary and could have been designed better, there is lot of free/wasted space as can be seen in the pictures below. Both sides of the center console have a silver lining (pun intended!, actually silver vertical edge surrounds) as a styling element.

Why the archaic slider for air intake selection modes ? The A/C switch is similar to the one on our Dzire and another such switch is used in our Dzire for switching between fresh and re-circulated air, so why this slider here like the old Maruti 800 (except it is placed horizontally!). The switch is already in the parts bin of the WagonR so why not use it for air intake selection mode as well ? This beats me!

3 spoke steering is nice, size is ideal and has softer material on the periphery making it chunk and feels comfortable to hold when driving.

The standard Maruti parts bin and layout comes into play for levers/stalks for wiper operation, turn signal/lighting controls including rear fog lamp, front fog lamp switch and the rotary switches for temperature, blower speed and air flow selection. The levers to release the tailgate and open fuel filler cap are placed on the floor near driver door and can be accessed easily from the drivers seat. This again is standard Maruti fare and much like in our Dzire.

Driver armrest on the door pad has 4 power window controls, window lock/unlock switch, a jog type mirror adjustment rotary switch and a cubby hole.
We miss a lock/unlock switch on the armrest, it's very painful to use the main lock/unlock switch on the door panel.

The speed sensitive auto-lock mechanism is a god-send and very useful for all the times when you may due to oversight forget to lock the doors manually.

The MID/Instrument Cluster has 3 circular sections (with chrome surrounds) - one each for tachometer, speedometer and warning/indication icons. The bottom portion of the Speedometer circle also has a LCD/digital display strip that is used to display fuel gauge, Odometer/Trip meter A or B.
To cycle through the digital display settings, a selector knob (short stalk) is provided much like in other Maruti cars.
While the fuel gauge is always displayed, the selector knob can be used to cycle the through the display for Values of Odometer, Trip meter A & Trip meter B.
The single line, short LCD display is sometimes difficult to read, especially text like the Trip meter's "A" and "B". LCD display strip could have been taller or could have been split into multiple narrower displays and stacked up like in other cars.
*The Owner's Manual mentions that the LCD display is also capable of displaying additional fuel consumption related information like instantaneous fuel consumption, average fuel consumption and driving range (if equipped)
Not sure if the Vxi(O) or Vxi AMT (O) is equipped with this, this would have been nice to have.

The fuel gauge is designed as vertical bars like the mobile phone and WiFi strength displays.
Just before tanking up for first time, fuel gauge showed a single bar and a flashing "E" (empty fuel warning), it took 32 litres to reach full tank.
Given that there are 10 bars in the fuel gauge display, and fuel tank capacity is 35 litres, can we assume each bar equals about ~3-3.5 litres of petrol ?

The underseat storage/basket below front passenger seat is very useful to keep any important things away from those prying eyes at signals and when parked.
With the stock upholstery, it is quite easy to open and close the seat bottom (using a loop provided to pull the seat bottom) to access the basket. However we noticed that after the art leather seat covers were fixed, it is not the case. We now need to recline the seat backrest to be able to open and close the seat bottom and access the basket.

There is a nifty little utility/bag hook provided in the front passenger footwell, next to the Glove box (lower portion of the dash). This hook can be closed when not in use. Must admit we never knew it existed till I saw this in the brochure, then looked up the manual before actually locating and checking it out in the car The hook is placed on the lower portion of the dash that tapers downwards and easy to miss if you don't look closely.

Rear seats are quite comfortable and reclined unlike the pre-2013 model that had almost upright rear seats. This has made the boot smaller but lot more comfortable for rear seated passengers.

The floor in the rear is almost flat with no significant hump and this aids in seating a third person in the middle quite comfortably.
Front seats can be folded flat. The rear seats have 60:40 splitting and can be very useful when you need that little bit of extra space to carry stuff.

A hook/belt hanger is provided to to hold the rear seat belts in place when folding the rear seats, this is a thoughtful addition.

Front Dash - Cockpit View


Passenger side of front dash - circular AC vent in the corner similar to those in the Dzire. Placed a box of facial tissues on the black top of the dashboard on the passenger side in just a few minutes of slow driving, it moved all over the place due to the tapered design of the surface. Would recommend only placing light objects on a non-slip dash mat. Used a non-slip dash mat for the facial tissues box placing it above the upper storage box and it didn't move around


Upper storage box on passenger side of dash (push type open/close mechanism) - for small things like mobile phone, sunglasses, other knick knacks.


Glove Box - decently sized, no lock & key


Glove Box - can be opened & closed when Pop-out cup/can holder is being used


Pop-out Cup/can holder - both passenger and driver side gets it



Pop-out Cup/can holders - Notice the foot shaped plastic extension that pops out to hold the object in place


Pop-out Cup/can holder - Holds beverages in tetra packs and cans


Center Console - fascia with Music system, Hazard Warning switch and HVAC controls at the bottom


Center Console - closer look at the Eagle Wings Music system. Notice the clock display. No separate exclusive digital clock!


Center Console - closer look at Hazard Warning Switch & HVAC controls, don’t miss the archaic slider from the 80’s for Air intake mode selection!


12 V, 120 W Accessory Socket


Cubby hole - on right side of steering wheel, lower portion of dash. Can hold a sunglass.


Switches - next to cubby hole, for Security Alarm, Headlamp leveling, Front Fog lamps and 3 placeholders


Driver door arm rest - Mirror adjustment rotary/Jog switch, 4 power window switches and a Window lock/unlock switch. Notice there is space for one more switch that could have been placed for Door Lock/Unlock (like in our Dzire), sorely miss this!
In the absence of such a switch in the arm rest, we are forced to use the door’s main lock/unlock switch.


Oval shaped Gear Knob - fits well in the wrist


Parking Brake


Just behind the Gear Lever and in front of Parking Brake - coin holders ?


Steering wheel - chunky enough to hold, soft material on the periphery, silver edges on 2 spokes can be used to honk


MID/Instrument cluster - 3 circles with chrome surrounds for tachometer, speedometer + LCD Display, informational/warning icons


Informational/warning icons in 3rd circle


MID illuminated - notice 3rd circle isn’t visible, it has no text/backlight


Informational/warning icons in 3rd circle - missing a Door Ajar warning


Driver door, top portion - Silver door handle, Black door lock/unlock switch, arm rest with mirror and window control switches and a cubby hole


Driver door, lower portion - map pocket & speaker. No bottle holder


Passenger door x 3, top portion - Silver door handle, Black door lock/unlock switch, power window switch and a cubby hole


Front passenger door, lower portion - map pocket & speaker. No bottle holder


Rear Door x 2, lower portion - Speaker only, No bottle holder

[NPV]

Interiors..continued

Front Floor console - in front of gear lever, has a cubby hole and cup holder at different levels and different depths, both have soft rubber lining at the base. Cubby hole has limited usage (maybe for coins, keeping a mobile phone here seems like a risk)


Cup holder in front floor console - can hold a 500ml beverage can


..Oops too big! - cannot hold a taller 500ml bottle due to restricted height available


Rear cup holder - can be closed when not in use


..and opened for use


Holds a 500ml beverage can


..and a taller 500ml bottle too. This is the only place we can use a 500ml bottle since none of the doors have bottle holders


Art leather Seat Covers - Front - Grey/Beige combo seat covers, the beige portion in the middle gives it a nice look but also seems to be a dirt magnet, the very reason we thought the stock Beige upholstery would be difficult to maintain! All Grey may have been a better option I think


Art leather Seat Covers - Rear


Utility/Bag Hook (2kg limit) - can be closed when not in use


..and opened for use


Front Passenger seat - Notice the black loop to open the seat bottom


Access the under seat storage - Use the loop to tug open the seat bottom


Basket/container can be lifted out


Basket taken out - notice the floor mat below the seat bottom


A, B, C Pedals - spaced well and easily reachable, comfortable to use


Front floor mats - Part of basic accessories package. Notice how the single piece mat wraps around the front floor console. Found it difficult to remove this mat, yet to figure out how to


Hood Release Handle - loose fitment, dangles - Notice wires at the back!


Day/Night IRVM - too short, useless - if the stalk from the roof mount that holds the mirror had been slightly longer or adjustable, it would have been better. This is causing a lot of strain on the neck, not offering a good view that covers a larger portion of the large rear windshield. Needs an upgrade very soon


Sun Visor - Driver side - has a ticket/card holder but no vanity mirror


Sun Visor - Passenger side - has a vanity mirror


Black dot pattern on windshield - the "third visor"


Read about this on Team-BHP here

The frit is a black enamel band that is literally baked into the edges of the windshield glass, accompanied by the border of black dots you are wondering about. The purpose of the frit is to provide an etched surface that allows adhesive to bond to the glass. When a manufacturer installs a new windshield, or an auto glass specialist like DeDona Auto Glass replaces your windshield, the glass is bonded to the vehicle with the frit as the contact point between the glass and the frame.
...
Some manufacturers use this to the occupants’ advantage by expanding the dot pattern downward between sun visors to create a kind of “third visor”, which helps to reduce glare from sunlight that the driver and passenger visors can’t block. Some car makers even take it a step further and use small logos or other unique designs in place of the traditional circular dots.

Source: Link

Rearward view - notice the large rear windshield and thick C pillars! Also notice how far back (just above the parcel tray) the rear interior cabin light is placed!


Space for Rear bench passengers - Flat floor, negligible hump, can easily accommodate 3 medium-sized adults or 2 adults and a child


RFID Tag - I wish FasTag simply used this instead of pasting another RFID Tag on the windshield!


Garmin PND with the portable friction mount - Tried this on our longish trips outside city limits. The friction mount is awesome and stays in place on the tapering dashboard top.


*Also notice the space provided on top of the dash for a picture or idol. Yet to fix the Ganesha idol there as it was given to us gift-wrapped.

[NPV]

Boot Area:
Defogger wire end-connector - defogger has 2 wires connected to the rear windshield, this one is good


..but this one is bad. Notice how the foam is coming out of the connector!


Parcel Tray - above the boot to keep it's contents out of view. Notice the large rubber bush in the middle and protrusions/ledges on the sides of the tailgate plastic cladding (to hold the parcel tray at the ends)


Parcel Tray - sides of parcel tray also get rubber bushes like this. These rubber bushes help keep vibrations/rattling noises in check


Boot - decently sized for our needs. Slightly higher loading lip can make loading heavier objects more stressful. Notice the warning triangle in it's standard Maruti blue pouch. Also notice the hole in the boot floor wooden lid to open it and access the spare tyre and tools. The Dzire comes with a black loop which looks much better than the crude hole!


Spare Tyre


Underside of the boot floor lid. Notice the soft cloth lining and the foam pads that occupy the gap between the lid and the spare tyre and provide a flat top that does not cave-in


The space on either side of the spare tyre has a tray - this one on left side has the first-aid kit


..and this one on right side has the jack and tools. These are nice additions since the jack and tools sit in place and do not jump around with that irritating noise in the boot and makes them easily accessible. With the Dzire I hate it when I have to reach out below the boot floor lid and behind the bumper to access the jack plus no carved out space/tray for tools in the Dzire


Hood Area:
What lies beneath - Well spaced, clean layout, no loose wires, etc. Placement of the prop rod mechanism is not the same as in our Dzire. Prop rod is fixed to underside of the bonnet and latches on to a V shaped wedge provided on the engine bay frame. In the Dzire, prop road is in the engine bay and latches on to a hole in the underside of the bonnet.


No insulation on underside of the hood


Wiper washer fluid filler cap & spout - where's the tank/reservoir ?


..it's here between the outer side panel and the inner frame!

[NPV]

Keys
Key has integrated remote transmitter built-in.
I just hate the keys. Very light and flimsy, has CHEAP written all over it! It doesn't even have an LED to indicate if it's working or not
I think this type of Key is now used in all the Maruti small cars and even the lower variants of the Vitara Brezza!
Dropping it will mean risking breaking the remote transmitter that is built-in with the key
It's very easy to lose or drop the key if you don't beef it up with a heavy key chain.

Key


Other side of Key - notice the buttons placed one on top of the other, not sideways. I find it very unintuitive when using them, at least the buttons could have been of different colors for lock and unlock (all other functions are possible with combinations of pressing both the keys simultaneously. Also notice the empty semi-circular portion, a placeholder for one or more buttons in another car/model


K&N Key chain - My search for a heavier key chain led to me to an old but unused K&N key chain, a miniature air filter


Key fixed to the K&N key chain - that's more like it, feels safe and solid now!


Old school key and remote - Would have preferred the old school key and remote like the one with our Dzire rather than the one that comes with the WagonR!

[NPV]

Running-in:
As per the owners manual running-in period is 960Km but does not mention about exceeding or limiting to a certain speed and engine rpm. It also says avoid hard braking for the first 320Km.


After reading up on the TBHP article How to Run-in your new car decided to follow the 2500Km running in period - keep the car under 2500 rpm for the first 1000Km, increase to 3000rpm till 1500Km and then gradually increase beyond 3000 rpm by 2500Km.

With the schools being closed now, Wifey didn't have much need for the car during weekdays so I've been using it for the office commute the last couple weeks.

My ~13 Km (one-way) commute involves heavy bumper to bumper traffic sections, small 1 Km open sections, muddy & uneven roads, few potholes, speed humps so it has the works from the perspective of a car's running-in needs, ensuring that the car will never be cruising at the same speed and engine rpm for a long time

Biggest surprise for me was the superb light clutch and precise gear shifts, I was expecting to take a couple of days or more to get used to it but never had any issues. The car handles the city traffic conditions very well, is nimble and manouvrable in heavy traffic.
Also used it for small runs within the city during the weekends for shopping and errands. At the end of the second week with the new car, during the weekend we drove around the city's outskirts on good, low traffic as well as 4 laned highway with city traffic conditions roads but ensured that the car is not driven on a certain gear and speed for a long time, took breaks in between for some photo shoots and to quench our thirst with some tender coconut water as well.

The car is due for the first service in the last week of this month (1 month or 1000Km, whichever is earlier). It has now run about 450Km and in the next 2 weeks it may run another 200Km, hoping to take it around on some short drives (~100Km) to nearby places during the weekends but still don't expect it to reach 1000Km, let's see how it goes!

Update - end of third week, today we drove the car from Bangalore to Vaniyambadi on the NH7, NH46 highways (Chennai route) for a total of around 330 Km door to door. Odo now reads ~850 Km with another week to go before the first service.

Fuel Efficiency:
With the first tankful of petrol, the fuel efficiency was around 12Kmpl (full tank to full tank method), with AC being used almost always. Drives were mostly in the city and one drive of < 100Km to the outskirts on 2 laned roads and a short 4 lane highway section with heavy city-like traffic.

Issues/Niggles/Upgrades:

• When playing Audio CDs (yes, we still have many of those original soundtrack ones!), it stops playing every third or fourth song (though display shows the song's play time ticking) and then pressing the track up or down button and then getting back to the problematic track gets it working! This problem has occurred on 3 different Audio CDs, will soon check on others too. However, a 750MB CD with MP3s hasn't had this problem so far. Maybe the Audio CDs in question are bad (scratched, etc) and causing this ?
• After 2 weeks of usage primarily for my office commute, one morning I found that one of the plastic screws/clips used to fasten the front passenger side mud flap was loose and came off easily. Should get this fixed during the first service.
  
• A hollow, clunk sound coming from the roof behind the drivers seat. First I suspected that the roof rail was loose but that wasn't the case, then I thought the rear passenger grab handle was loose and causing this but on inspection, it doesn't seem to be the case. Anyone else felt this ? This sound emanates once in a while when driving and goes away immediately!
• IRVM is simply too small so need to find a larger one, hopefully a compatible MGA product used as a stock mirror in some other Maruti car
• Plastic cladding for rear wheel wells. There seems to be provision for this, need to check if a MGA product is available

Free Service Coupons:
Noticed that the Coupons in the owner's manual are titled "1st Free Inspection", etc. (Wasn't this "1st Free Service" in the past ?)
Why this change now ? Legally correct terminology is now used since they will really not "service" the vehicle but instead just "inspect" it ?

..and before ending this review and saying Goodbye
I've taken you through our journey in finding the replacement for our Maruti 800 and shared a lot of details from our experience, views and observations on the WagonR. Hope this helps others make an informed decision when considering the WagonR.
This is my first ever car review (proof reading, photos and captions are the toughest!), burnt midnight oil during a long weekend to complete it, hope you like it. Please do share your feedback. Happy Safe Driving!

Parting shots...

"When Waggy® met Dizzy®"


Some gifts are Priceless!

[Eddy]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing.

[a4anurag]

Hey NPV, congratulations on the WagonR.

I guess this is the same D/N mirror that comes in the Swift too looking at the mounting bracket.

If you need a bigger IRVM them you'll have to go aftermarket like I have gone in my Swift. Get a Auto dimming IRVM it works well, it's reliable and is tad larger on size than OEM. You can check my DIY Replacement thread for further details.

If your interested at stock type IRVM, then I don't think any such exist with larger dimensions.

[theexperthand]

Wow, a very detailed (Dare I say - as detailed as the official review) review - you have certainly left no stones unturned and this should be rechristened to 'The definitive guide to Wagon R'.

Wishing you and your wife lots of happy miles.

--Anoop